1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to generally personal safety, specifically to a simple check-in and follow-up service having automated follow-up actions triggered by the inaction of the member according to the member's pre-selected options. Continued inaction by the member beyond a pre-determined time frame results in establishing a missing person report for use by either a member's pre-selected emergency contact or contacts, or by appropriate authorities.
2. Description of the Related Art
People commonly agree that when someone is in trouble, prompt follow-up action is desired and will be more likely to produce a favorable outcome. However, the lack of accurate information needed for follow-up action often impedes timely assistance. Further, authorities are generally reluctant to have someone officially declared as missing, unless probable cause is established. People, especially socially active individuals, often use a verbal message system to communicate their whereabouts within a network of other individuals, such as a college student telling a dorm mate she is going to the movies at 8 pm and should be home by 11 pm. One important disadvantage of this type of verbal message system is that in some instances people may elect not to inform their personal network of friends or relatives about their current circumstances to avoid complicated communications, wherein their safety is placed at risk should follow-up action be required. For example, the college student may not actually be going to the movies, but instead going somewhere else for a date. Then, if she fails to return on time, the friend or dorm mate does not have accurate information to begin follow-up action. Another disadvantage of the verbal message system is that the follow-up action taken is variable, and may include no action at all. The roommate may go to bed, study late and fail to notice the time, or become otherwise preoccupied. Leaving a voice mail, email, or other manual message with an individual can also have varying results, and may result in no action taken for a variety of reasons. Prompt action will not be taken when the individual to whom the manual message is directed does not find it in a timely manner. In addition, the individual may receive the message and then become preoccupied and fail to think about the person who left the message being overdue, which places the person's safety at risk if she has car trouble or is otherwise is in need of assistance. Another risk of leaving a message with an individual is that the individual receiving the manual message may think their friend or relative is perpetually late, and therefore no immediate action is required. As a result of the potential failures noted above, there is a need for a simple system that a person can use to leave a beneficial message and know that pre-determined follow-up actions will automatically and reliably be taken on their behalf to enhance their safety.
The invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,047,203 to Johnson (2006) has some of the same features as the present invention, however the Johnson invention appears to be structured for travelers, such as an airline passenger traveling for business and needing to establish an extended and/or frequently changed itinerary. The Johnson invention allows those traveling over longer periods of time to use an itinerary creation and cancellation process to create one or more itineraries at once, and requires setup and validation for each itinerary creation or extension. In contrast, the present invention allows for storage of pre-selected information defined as a member profile and subsequent member creation of check-in messages that are each given a date and time stamp at the time of creation. The present invention service only stores one check-in message at a time for the member that must be canceled before another can be entered. The check-in message is then compared to the member profile and when the check-in message ages past pre-selected follow-up periods in the member profile, the member is automatically reminded that the time period has passed. If no response is received from the member leaving the check-in message, then at least one alternate contact is alerted, and if there is a continued failure of response from the member leaving the check-in message, one or more additional person(s) pre-selected by the member and identified in the member's stored profile, or local authorities, may be contacted to reduce the timeframe for filing a missing person report. Further, the filing of an official missing person report may be expedited, as probable cause for concern will have been established by the history of steps taken by the present invention database and subsequent failure of the member to respond.
A major disadvantage of the Johnson invention for personal/social use is that each transaction in the Johnson invention requires the member to setup a transaction-specific personal identification code along with an individual validation code specific for the itinerary, which is cumbersome. In contrast, the present invention does not require a member to create an additional code for each transaction. Instead the present invention has a member-created reusable code created once in the member profile information, making it easier for a member to recall. A further disadvantage of the Johnson invention is that using data entry to establish a check-in follow-up time allows for data entry error. Conversely, the present invention bases follow-up actions on the database created date/time stamp of the member-created check-in message, which eliminates data entry error. In addition, the present invention has other advantages over the Johnson invention, including a simple single message check-in action by a member or cancellation by the member, whereas Johnson is set up to allow more complex multiple itinerary creations and extensions each requiring specific codes to cancel follow-up actions. The present invention also allows a member to change their static password using a pre-selected question/answer for easier use, whereas Johnson has codes assigned at a transaction level creating possible confusion. Typically, once a member using the present invention creates a profile and stores the pre-determined information, the current invention's simple check-in message database time stamp triggers all follow-up actions, whereas Johnson requires more time for each itinerary creation or cancellation inputs. There is no prior art invention known having all of the same features and advantages of the present invention.